Free License Images
Email from Molly Beach with AWWA
From: Molly Beach <MBeach@awwa.org>
Sent: Wednesday, June 28, 2023 3:54 PM
To: Molly Beach <MBeach@awwa.org>
Cc: Jauch, Scott <scott.jauch@hdrinc.com>
Subject: AWWA M77: Images advertised as having "Free Licenses"
Hello M77 volunteers,
I have received questions about using images that you might find for free online (e.g. Google, Wikipedia, etc). AWWA’s Publications Department gave some general insights on how to assess whether these types of images are really free to use. See the snip below for an example Google Images search:
You want to select “Creative Common Licenses”, NOT “Commercial and other licenses.” In theory, AWWA will have the freedom to use any image selected from the Creative Common Licenses section but you will still have to read the “fine print” to make sure.
AWWA has a paid subscription to Shutterstock. If you find an image in Shutterstock, just insert the graphic in your chapter even with the watermark, “Shutterstock” showing. AWWA graphics staff will make sure the watermark is removed.
Sources for Creative Commons or generously-licensed images include:
https://www.flickr.com/commons*
*Please double-check the copyright restrictions statement for any photo selected from flickr. The Commons-only search field sometimes disappears once you leave the Commons home page and it’s easy to find yourself searching copyright-held images. A drop down menu near the upper left of the search results page will allow you to re-restrict the search results to “No known copyright restrictions.” Also, ignore any “sponsored” results.
“Creative Commons” (CC) is an umbrella term for six different license types, so read the license attributes carefully when selecting an image. All CC licenses require attribution, so we ask that if authors download any images, they keep track of where they came from so that we can credit them accordingly.
There are images to be found in the Public Domain: http://publicdomainreview.org/collections/
Public domain images include a selection of historic images, video, and audio collected from a variety of Public Domain archives. The high-res file must be downloaded from the original source but there will always be a link to make that easy (and often even more images of the same sort of thing at that source link).
Final caveat: Images you find via these resources may not be high-resolution files. Many are, and some won’t be. For AWWA publications, we’re looking for images that are a minimum of 1200ppi wide.
Thanks,
Molly Beach
Senior Manuals Specialist
American Water Works Association
Direct +1 303.347.6196
<mbeach@awwa.org> | <www.awwa.org>